After a night had passed, two small teams of 8 people left Xia Ma Town after ensuring that the residents no longer had the ability to resist.
All the equipment in the treasury, including everything confiscated from the residents, had been inventoried. Chen Jian took the parts needed by the team, while the remaining miscellaneous items, including useless homemade firearms, were all handed over to Xu Lie's Holy Blood Team, with plans to sell them for cash and split the profits equally.
It must be said, although the stuff held by the miners in Xia Ma Town was not of good quality, there was indeed a large quantity. After organizing them, Chen Jian still found quite a few good things.
A few sets of gun parts, 4 oddly modified 5.8mm caliber single-shot rifled guns, 4 pieces of Level 5 ballistic plates, a Q3 paratrooper shovel, 6 DSY151 type 48mm thermobaric grenades produced in 2020, over a hundred usable rounds of 5.8mm caliber bullets, and a vehicle-mounted 220-1 type 125W shortwave radio.
Chen Jian was extremely familiar with this radio, as it was the same model installed in his vehicle in that other world.
Its functions were quite powerful—when paired with a tuner, it could communicate over nearly two thousand kilometers and had features like automatic networking, frequency hopping encryption, digital encryption, and more.
Unfortunately, this piece was as old as it could be, all electronic components were damaged, rendering it completely non-functional.
So in the end, Chen Jian simply dismantled it, took out any usable parts to take with him, and left the rest behind.
However, the battery that came with the radio was still usable. Chen Jian tried using that battery to charge the one in his gun sight, and it worked.
But he still didn't dare use this thing to charge other electronic devices. After all, there was no guarantee of voltage stability, and if something got fried, that would truly be the height of foolishness.
----Aside from relieving the team's immediate need for bullets, the most important find this time was undoubtedly the disassembled mechanical exoskeleton.
Judging from the model, this exoskeleton should be an improved version of the L90 produced by Factory 202 from Chen Jian's era. Compared to the L90 he personally tested, this thing clearly had far more functionality at first glance.
With a more compact hydraulic system and motor, a smaller energy module, a 100% titanium alloy frame, so many weapon mounts that Chen Jian felt a bit overwhelmed, and a multi-joint design that would evidently provide greater flexibility for the user.
Most importantly, this exoskeleton came with a PDA of unknown model, clearly used for real-time force feedback calculation.
Although Chen Jian hadn't tried it and wouldn't likely use this exoskeleton anytime soon, he could fully imagine how strong the combat capability of a soldier with adequate individual combat skills would be if they wore this exoskeleton.
Thus, he packed it up without hesitation and took it along.
Who knows, maybe it could be repaired?
Anyway, as the professional repairman in the team, Lei Jie was quite confident about fixing this thing.
While following the team westward along the vegetation-covered highway, Lei Jie spoke up:
"...This thing should be easier to repair than that wrist crossbow we found earlier. The infrared module on the wrist crossbow is too complicated, whereas this operates on force feedback logic, making the sensors relatively simple."
"Whether or not this PDA can boot up isn't really important. If it can boot up, it would simply perform some AI calculations to make the feedback more predictive."
"Even without the PDA, just relying on the force feedback sensors can ensure functionality."
"Gotta love Factory 202; just look at how sturdy this design is. The stuff made at Factory 206 is nothing to brag about..."
"Enough."
Chen Jian interrupted Lei Jie and said:
"You're only badmouthing Factory 206 now that they're gone, but back when they came to our place for testing, weren't you the one having the most fun?"
"...Having fun is one thing, how good it is is another."
Lei Jie laughed awkwardly and continued:
"I really don't get what the people here were thinking. This is clearly the most valuable thing, yet they just left it lying around."
"This exoskeleton was originally in excellent condition; it could very well still be usable."
"But they ended up dismantling it, it's just absurd..."
"Nothing absurd about it."
Chen Jian chuckled and said:
"Don't you get it yet? The technological level here is like a jigsaw puzzle, with some parts broken and others still intact."
"Anything related to electricity, they're extremely backward on. Being able to use batteries and radios is their limit, and you expect them to understand exoskeletons?"
"To them, perhaps this thing is nothing more than a piece of craftsmanship..."
"Exactly."
Just as Chen Jian finished speaking, Xu Lie, who was walking ahead, turned back to chime in:
"There's a similar... sculpture in Jinling City, even larger than this one you found."
"Everyone just considers it an artifact of the old times, but now that I think about it, it might be operational too..."
"A larger exoskeleton? How is it different?"
Chen Jian asked sharply.
"That... exoskeleton, right? That exoskeleton has armor."
"Hiss..."
The four members of the team inhaled sharply.
An exoskeleton with armor, and even larger.
Is this even called an exoskeleton?
That's a battle mecha!
What's going on, from the time I traveled to the so-called "Great Catastrophe" occurring, in just twenty or thirty years, has the nation's military technology progressed this far?
----Wait a minute, thinking it over.
Back in 2000, there were only a few small boats in the South China Sea, and by 2020, the electromagnetic railgun-equipped Type 055 destroyers had secretly launched for testing.
So evolving from exoskeletons to combat mechas in twenty years seems quite reasonable upon reflection...
Chen Jian was already getting a bit impatient.
He couldn't wait to head to Jinling, not just to claim the bounty, nor only to witness the largest city settlement of humanity on this apocalyptic wasteland; more importantly, he wanted to see to what extent his compatriots had developed technology after they traveled through time.
----And how had the survivors utilized those technologies?
Chen Jian was really curious.
The team continued to move westward, and after three days and two nights of trekking, they reached the banks of the Yangtze River.
Chen Jian immediately recognized the still-standing but heavily deteriorated Dongting Lake Bridge over the river. He initially thought the team would cross the bridge and continue west, but Xu Lie led the team northward to a pier.
"This is Dongting Lake Pier."
"According to the schedule, a transport ship of the Mechanical God Sect will pass by today. We can get a ride on their ship, heading north to Han Shui for a rest."
"You'd better hide all those pieces of equipment to avoid unnecessary trouble..."
"Transport ship?"
Chen Jian frowned slightly.
A ship that can navigate the Yangtze River?
Surely that's not something the locals of this wasteland could manage. The electronic systems on the ship alone would be enough to puzzle them for a lifetime.
Or perhaps, by some stroke of luck, there's a ship here that's been perfectly preserved and operational?
Chen Jian was full of questions.
He ordered the team to camouflage all their equipment and stood quietly with the four Holy Blood members by the shore, waiting for the "transport ship" Xu Lie mentioned to arrive.
And nearly an hour later, the ship finally arrived.
First, a plume of black smoke appeared on the horizon.
Soon after, a wooden, sail-equipped ship, accompanied by the distinctive puffing sound of a steam engine, slowly approached.
"Damn."
Chen Jian exhaled deeply.
"This damn thing... did we just revert to the steam era??"